*Creaking noise*
Do not adjust your sets
or computer monitors; this
video is all about
sound.
Because it's time for us to start thinking about writing
radio advertisements,
and we don't see anything
when we're listening to radio
advertisements, do we? So although we're
completely accustomed to seeing
visually on computer, on our phones,
on our televisions; we're
just absolutely surrounded by
visual feedback,
visual stimuli. In radio,
it's all about the
sounds. Here,
let me
get your picture.
Thank you,
Taylor Swift.
Bradley Cooper, getting their pictures.
Now students, get out your pens
and your notebooks,
and take some notes.
Oh, that's terrible; those notes are terrible.
Rip that up. Awful,
that's some of the worst writing I've ever seen.
But, that's not
a drop in the bucket
compared to the other kinds of sounds
that you might have in a radio ad. Don't forget
to use your mouse
or maybe
we will use an old-fashioned typewriter
or teletype machine.
You probably don't even know what that is,
but get your keys out and get in your house;
open the door because we
are going to, oh no wait a minute.
*Shaking noise* What's
that? Could that be
a rattlesnake?
Or, is it just
someone walking through
the snow?
I hope they make a snow angel,
but they need to just
zip it up. Zzzzzip
it.
Or, maybe they need to tape it up
with some duct tape. The good ole' sound
duct tape tearing because you know,
that fixes everything doesn't it?
Watch out, there's some sick
ducks.
Ducks;
duct tape get it?
But, get your
staplers ready.
We're going to staple some papers together,
just like a good teacher would do.
And, get your money
out.
Maybe, maybe that's popcorn
popping. Is that popcorn popping?
So, does that give you some ideas
about your radio advertisements and how important sound
is. Sound is the most important
element in radio advertisements because we don't have
the luxury of using visuals.
So,
you're going to have to think auditorily;
not visually
for radio advertising. That's pretty difficult.
Your temptation is going to be
to just have people conversing in your radio ads.
Let's see if I've got myself together here.
But no. Yes, you can have voices
obviously that's fine, and sometimes that's important,
and generally you'll have an announcer
that well either open up the advertisement or close
the advertisement with some kind of call to action or some kind of statement.
But, you don't always just have to have two people talking
or one person talking in an advertisement;
maybe your ad is going to be mostly sounds;
differing kinds of sounds. Whether it be,
a rattling sound of
of,
someone rattling around looking for something,
or ripping something. Maybe that was a balloon popping.
Maybe you'll have balloon
sounds or helium squealing
out of the balloon.
Help! Rattlesnake, kill it.
But, as maybe you've discerned
sound is so important
in these radio ads and creativity too.
Don't write your radio ads just as everyone else has.
Have them grab attention, just like you want with a headline
or just like you want with a slogan; grabbing the attention with something
that's unique
and fresh is really crucial to a good
radio ad. The format for a radio ad is very simple,
very very simple and I'll post that on D2L
obviously, the form. Another thing that's extremely important in a radio ad
is to time your ad; to know what
time you have allotted, is it a 15-second ad,
is it a 30-second ad, is it a minute
ad? Which would be really unusual and very expensive or a lot more expensive.
But, get your phone app out
for your stopwatch and
time your advertisement so that you have it
down to the second because they have to have it down to the second.
Now, one radio announcer will read faster
then another radio announcer, and you can certainly speed up your talking a little
bit so that
you can read a radio announcement faster than
you would normally actually say it, but you have to be careful
because you don't want to cram too much in there and have someone talking so
fast that you can't even understand what they're saying;
there's one of these radio ads that's all about all the disclaimer information on
one of their,
what is it a sweepstakes or something like that and they're talking so
fast that you can't even understand what they're saying.
You don't want
want people to be so baffled
by what they're saying because they can't understand it that they pay attention.
It's important that they understand the words because
the words and the sounds are so important in a radio ad.
So, I put the format on D2L for you;
you want to be sure that you adhere to that format because that's what
folks in radio media are looking for,
they want a certain format. When I write a PSA, a public service announcement
I time those out to make sure that they are either 15 seconds, if I possibly can
sometimes thirty seconds, but that's really too much to ask for for free;
when you're paying for advertising that's different. But, you want it all in
caps
for those folks; a PSA is always
all typed all in caps because that's how radio
media members
actually want their text
or their copy. You want to be sure that you designate
sound effects separately, on a separate line
in your radio ads; that would be SFX.
And then your announcer
you'll designate specifically as the speaker,
and then maybe you'll have a child,
or you'll have a mother, or you'll have a race car driver,
or y'all have and a duck;
maybe the ducks talking like, "Aflac."
But, you want to be sure that you follow the proper format
and that you keep it within the time allotted, so keep your stopwatch handy.
And, keep your brain clicking;
you must have that brain clicking
along
with ideas for what sound effect would make sense
in this commercial for
the Natural History Museum; where they have
red pandas,
that are actually a fox like creature, what kind of sound does that make?
Are we going to have a dinosaur sound? Roaaaar. The
T-rex sound, you can't have the T-rex picture
but you can have the T-rex sound. Or maybe the duck,
or maybe some duct
tape.
But, what sound
would get people's attention; what sound
would make sense with this particular message
that we're trying to get across? What sound would be
unusual in this situation but
be clever or be
unified and cohesive with this particular radio
advertisement. So, think
sound;
just close your eyes and think
what kind of sound would make sense for this,
and maybe the sounds will be the first thing that come to your mind
and the text, the copy comes next
as you're thinking about your particular message that you've chosen in
your creative brief
to actually act
out or sound out in your radio advertisement.
So, hopefully this has gotten
your brain working, and you're not too afraid of rattlesnakes,
or of typewriters,
or of someone strange
knocking at your door. You
may have to take
your stapler to them,
or poke them in the eye
with a key. Don't do that,
and don't say your teacher said that that was okay. But
think about it, maybe
you'll have the cavalry come in
and save you, whoa! But,
if you have questions you can always ask me; just give me a ring
on the old cell phone a little
ding-a-ling on the cell phone.
Oh, I've got a bell here somewhere it's
hiding, oh give me a call one ringy dingy,
two ringy dingy's. Remember,
sound.
Sound is what matters
in radio.
Radio... radio...